Just A Kiss
by urstory
Summary: SEQUEL to Need You Now ... also based on a Lady Antebellum song ... What happens when Elijah gets his glimpse?


_**Lyin' here with you so close to me**_

 _ **It's hard to fight these feelings**_

 _ **When it feels so hard to breathe**_

 _ **Caught up in this moment**_

 _ **Caught up in your smile**_

Hayley was very suddenly and very painfully aware of her breathing. It was too heavy and too constricted … too _obvious_. She was supposed to be asleep, but the cabin was far too cold and she had far too much on her mind … or far too much of _someone_ on her mind. The flames of her tiny fire were mocking her by expending light, but not heat somehow. She shivered under the thin blanket –

 _Damn it_ , she thought, _he surely noticed that …_

He had been standing in her doorway for what felt like forever … a tall figure bathed in darkness and leaning against the doorframe casually, as he had the habit of doing. He was … doing nothing, actually.

Hayley wished she could see his face, but forced herself to keep her eyes closed, maintaining her sham of a charade – until she heard the floorboard creak as he stepped inside.

 _God bless these old floorboards,_ she thought. How very unlike him to make such a simple mistake …

Hayley sighed contentedly as she listened to him approach her bed, before biting her lip subconsciously…

 _Yep, he definitely noticed that,_ she thought. _The game is up. Busted._

She sighed again as her eyes fluttered open.

"Elijah?" she whispered, and her eyes caught his face just in time to see his lips twitch up into that boyish grin that only surfaced around her …

He raised his eyebrows amusedly at her attempted pretense of waking up – nothing could get past his vampiric sense – before sitting lightly on the side of her bed slightly closer than was really necessary.

"What are you doing here? What's wrong?" Hayley asked when he remained silent. Her legs moved, knees coming up to rest against his back as she sat up … and froze.

They were far too close for a casual situation – and he hadn't moved. He hadn't moved, he hadn't spoken … he just stared at her wondrously, adoringly – and she swore his smile grew slightly.

She swallowed hard.

 _ **I've never opened up to anyone**_

 _ **So hard to hold back**_

 _ **When I'm holding you in my arms**_

 _ **We don't need to rush this**_

 _ **Let's just take it slow**_

Elijah really needed to say something, but for someone who was always in control he was having an incredibly difficult time focusing right now.

He should be apologizing. He should be excusing himself. He should be leaving. All he had wanted was a glimpse – she was never supposed to know he had been there …

He should be pulling away …

 _You have no right, remember?_ He thought. _You are over-stepping. And beside that, she's mad at you … remember? Not impressed with you …_

But he could feel her legs against his back … her hand resting next to his leg … her warm breath ghosting over his face – so close … He couldn't bring himself to make that choice, to pull away. And for some reason, neither was she.

"Nothing," he finally whispered, answering her question. "Nothing is wrong." He carefully tucked a strand of stray hair behind her ear, his fingers brushing lightly over the side of her face. Her eyes fluttered. He swallowed.

But that was a lie. Of course something was wrong. Everything was wrong … because she was out here in the bayou instead of with him in the compound. And he needed her. It wasn't just that he had never felt this way before – nothing as shallow as that. No, this was so much more than mere feelings – this was something real.

"You didn't like your party," he murmured, not bothering to remove his hand from her face and acutely aware that her hand had moved to rest on his knee.

"My party?" she breathed out, as though truly speaking or moving would shatter the cocoon of his presence. "Elijah … that was a political gala. You did it for the peace … not me."

His thumb traced lightly over her lips, his eyes following its progress. Did she not know why the peace was so important to him? Did she not know that it was all for her?

"I do everything for you," he whispered.

 _ **Just a kiss on your lips in the moonlight**_

 _ **Just a touch of the fire burning so bright**_

 _ **And I don't want to mess this thing up**_

 _ **I don't want to push too far**_

 _ **Just a shot in the dark that you just might**_

 _ **Be the one I've been waiting for my whole life**_

 _ **So baby I'm alright, with just a kiss goodnight**_

Elijah swallowed and shut his eyes, looking as though he were in pain. He had over-stepped … again.

 _I keep nothing from you … I always come back … I do everything for you …_

He had a habit of letting these declarations slip out around her. They were never grandiose or showy; they were spoken casually even … just the simple truth. He was always teetering on the boundary line with her. What must she think?

But his interior anxieties ceased abruptly when he felt her lips. His thumb had stilled and rested on the center of her lips, his hand gently cupping her face … and now – ever so slowly, ever so gently – her lips moved, pressing a single kiss there, and he swore he felt the heat shoot through his hand and up his arm.

He opened his eyes … Her face glowed in the moonlight, her dark eyes open and unassuming … innocent. Her hair was beginning to fall out of place again … he brushed the soft strands back once more – something he was sure he would never tire of doing.

And when her eyes flickered down to his lips he didn't retreat, but moved forward – magnetized – his fingers entwining in her hair as he guided her lips to meet his.

The kiss was sweet and exhilarating and overwhelming … and when he pulled back gently and rested his forehead against hers, he knew that this was just the beginning of what he had spent a thousand years both waiting and searching for …

 _ **No I don't want to say goodnight**_

 _ **I know it's time to leave,**_

 _ **But you'll be in my dreams**_

 _ **Tonight**_

Hayley had never before known that such a simple, pure act could hold so much power. She was consumed by it and would have to rethink everything she thought she knew … because the truth was that she neither needed nor wanted anything else in the moment.

She could stay there – foreheads together, eyes half-shut, breathing the same air – forever.

But forever is not always – perhaps that's why the Michelson vow was so specific – and she knew that they would have to move eventually …

And when sleep finally claims her hours later, her mind will replay this moment so many times that upon waking the next morning she will wonder if the whole thing had just been a magnificent dream … that is, until she sees that special glint in his eyes as he watches her slide into the booth at Rousseau's with him and Klaus …

THE END


End file.
